1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a surface treating tape cartridge useful for surface treatment of magnetic disks, magnetic tapes and like media, and a surface treating machine using the surface treating tape cartridge.
More specifically, the present invention contemplates to facilitate handling of surface treating tapes by providing a surface treating tape cartridge packaging therein a pair of reels carrying a winding of a tape to be used for surface treatment of magnetic disks, magnetic tapes and like media.
Further, the invention concerns a surface treating machine employing a cartridge of the nature mentioned above, for surface treatment of a work, the machine including a tape drawing mechanism for drawing out the surface treating tape in the cartridge to a predetermined position, and a tape pressing mechanism for pressing the tape against the work, thereby loading the surface treating tape automatically in position on the machine in a facilitated manner to improve the working efficiency and productivity of the surface treating process.
2. Prior Art
The technology of surface treatment has thus far been adopted in various fields. For example, in case of hard disks and floppy disks which are widely used as a memory medium for computers, it has been required to impart a certain degree of surface coarseness to substrates of magnetic disks or to base films by a surface treatment from the standpoint of performance quality in travel and durability. In case of optical disks to be used on optical systems, the substrates need a grinding or polishing treatment as they are required to have a smooth surface prior to formation of a recording layer. Further, in case of magnetic tapes, especially in case of vapor deposition tapes, it is necessary to give a finishing surface treatment to the surfaces of base films also from the standpoint of performance quality in travel. The surfaces of liquid crystal cells to be used for liquid-crystal television screens, for example, likewise need a lapping treatment in a particular direction for orientation of the liquid crystal material.
In this manner, the technology of surface treatment has been in use in a broad range of industrial fields. In actual applications, for example, when giving a certain surface treatment to a work, it has been the general practice to employ a surface treating tape, e.g., a lapping tape or a cleaning tape, which is simply wound on a reel, setting the tape in position on a machine by manually drawing out the tape and threading it through and around a large number of guide rollers.
However, the job of threading a surface treating tape through and around a large number of guide rollers is very complicated and time consuming. Besides, the manual tape threading operation often gives rise to the problems resulting from false tape setting, in addition to a problem that handling of the tape itself is not easy.